Tubular, plastic bottle labels which surround bottles and are maintained in position by tension of the labels are enjoying increasing popularity. A number of machines have been developed for applying such labels to vessels, the most recent of which is a high speed labeler which is described and claimed in copending application 07/789,257, filed Nov. 7, 1991, entitled HIGH SPEED SLEEVER and assigned to Automated Label Systems Company, the assignee of this patent (the HIGH SPEED LABELER case).
Reusable, plastic bottles are also increasing in popularity. Some segments of the beverage industry have commenced to use standardized bottles, so that bottlers in a standardized industry segment are able to reuse returned bottles without the need for the expense of sorting reusable bottles and returning them to a particular bottler.
One of the many reasons for increased popularity of tubular labels is that they can be readily removed from bottles facilitating reuse of the bottles or recycling of the bottle materials as well as recycling of the label materials.
A high speed delabeling machine that has also been developed is described and claimed in copending application 07/941,388, filed on Sep. 8, 1992, entitled DELABELER AND METHOD and also assigned to Automated Label Systems Company (the HIGH SPEED DELABELER case). With both the high speed labeler and the delabeler, bottles are conveyed inline by a supply section of a conveyor. A variable pitch screw engages bottles as they approach the processing machine and accelerates them to provide appropriate spacing and timing for supply of the bottles to work stations on a rotary turret. Upon exit from the processing machine, the bottles are transferred to an exit conveyor which receives them at spacings corresponding to the spacings achieved by the variable pitch screw.
With these prior machines one long conveyor belt is provided which operates at speeds appropriate for supply of bottles to the processing machine. As they approach the variable pitch screw, their engagement with bottles that precedes them retards their motion and they slip relative to the belt. On exit they are spaced and there is no such engagement to effect the retarding, so the bottles are not only spaced, but transported at speeds which are faster than they need be. Because of their spacings and speed, they are more susceptible to falling over than they should be and further processing is made somewhat difficult by their spacing.
Accordingly, there exits a need for returning the bottles to an inline, touching relationship corresponding to their relationship on the supply section of the conveyor once the bottles have been through the processing machine.